Laurence Yep

Writer

Born: 14 June 1948

Birthplace: San Francisco, California

Best known as: Author of the 1975 book Dragonwings

Chinese-American writer Laurence Yep is the author of Dragonwings (1975), Child of the Owl (1977) and dozens of other books for young readers. Yep studied at Marquette University and earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California Santa Cruz (1970) before getting a doctorate in English from the University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. The same year he published Dragonwings, a touching turn-of-the-century tale that mixed flying machines, the Chinese immigrant experience, and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The book was named a Newbery Medal Honor Book and was the first of what became the Golden Mountain Chronicles -- nine books by Yep about Chinese immigrants in California. Yep has also written fantasy (including the Tiger's Apprentice series) and science fiction, and has dabbled in other genres with books like the historical mystery The Mark Twain Murders (1982).

Extra credit: His 2001 memoir The Lost Garden recounted his childhood in San Francisco... Yep is married to children's author Joanne Ryder; the couple met at Marquette University in 1967... Dragonwings was Yep's second novel; his first, the science fiction tale Sweetwater, was published in 1973.